Are emotions frightening? An extension of the fear of fear construct

Williams, Kimberly; Chambless, Dianne L.; Ahrens, Anthony H.

doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(96)00098-8

Cited by 221 publications

(235 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

226

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The fear of anxiety is defined as the tendency to view anxiety as threatening and to fear losing control over the experience of anxiety (Williams et al 1997). Given that one of the key diagnostic criteria for GAD is that worry is uncontrollable (American Psychiatric Association 2000), low perceived control is a construct that is relevant to GAD.…”

Section: Fear Of Anxietymentioning

confidence: 99%

Well-Being and Generalized Anxiety in Japanese Undergraduates: A Prospective Cohort Study

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Psychological well-being is thought to protect against common mental health problems. This study investigated the buffering effects of psychological well-being on the relationships between cognitive vulnerabilities (fear of anxiety and negative beliefs about worry) and GAD symptoms among 297 Japanese undergraduates (female = 62%, age = 18.91 ± 1.61) in a two-wave prospective cohort study. Participants completed the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire for DSM-IV, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, anxiety control subscale of Affective Control Scale, negative belief about worry subscale of Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire, and Nishida's psychological well-being scale. A moderated regression analysis tested the buffering effect of psychological well-being sub-dimensions on the relationship between cognitive vulnerabilities and generalized anxiety symptoms. Fear of anxiety (b = 0.16, p \ 0.01) and negative Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

show abstract

Section: Fear Of Anxietymentioning

confidence: 99%

Well-Being and Generalized Anxiety in Japanese Undergraduates: A Prospective Cohort Study

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Or does it refer to any kind of cognitive, affective, volitional, and other mental states that are causally related to emotions and/or can take emotions as their intentional objects? Some authors consider meta-emotion a concept that exclusively refers to emotions and other affective reactions toward one's own emotions (e.g., Gottman et al, 1997;Jäger & Bartsch, 2006;Maio & Esses, 2001;Oliver, 1993;Williams, Chambless, & Ahrens, 1997;Wirth & Schramm, 2007). Others construe meta-emotion to include a wider range of metalevel mental processes, including emotional self-awareness, normative evaluation of emotions, emotion regulation, etc.…”

Section: Definitions and Operationalizations Of Meta-emotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(p. 6). The Affect Control Scale (Williams et al, 1997) measures fear of emotion, which taps meta-emotion in this narrow sense. The items refer to the fear and worry of specific kinds of emotion and attempts to avoid these emotions.…”

Section: Definitions and Operationalizations Of Meta-emotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Emotions as such can be monitored and appraised (cf., the meta-evaluation subscales of Mayer & Stevens, 1994), they may become an object of affective reactions (cf., Oliver, 1993;Williams et al, 1997), which result in a desire to maintain or to change the emotion (cf., the meta-regulation subscales of Mayer & Stevens, 1994), or in a motivation to approach or avoid emotion-inducing situations and activities in the future (cf., Maio & Esses, 2001). Thus, appraisal theories of emotion seem well-equipped to cover a large spectrum of the meta-emotion phenomena addressed in the research literature.…”

Section: Meta-emotion Revisited In the Context Of Appraisal-theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the sake of simplicity, they will not be considered in detail here. 4 Wirth & Schramm (2007) State Meta-Mood Scale Mayer & Stevens (1994) x x x x x Trait Meta-Mood Scale Salovey et al (1995) x x x x x Need for Emotion Raman et al (1995) x x x x x Meta-Emotion Interview Gottman et al (1997) x x x x x Affect Control Scale (fear of emotions) Williams et al (1997) x x x x x Need for Affect Sojka & Giese (1997) x x x x x Need for Affect Maio & Esses (2001) x x x x x Entertainment Index (macro-emotion) Früh et al (2004) x x x x x…”

Section: Appraisal Of Emotions In Media Use 30mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Appraisal of Emotions in Media Use: Toward a Process Model of Meta-Emotion and Emotion Regulation

Vorderer²,

et al. 2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past 20 years, research on meta-emotion and related concepts such as metamood and need for affect has become fruitful and prominent across a variety of disciplines, including media psychology in particular. This paper reviews the literature on meta-emotion and considers problems regarding the definition and operationalization of this construct. We propose a process model of meta-emotion and emotion regulation to integrate and extend existing work. Drawing on appraisal theories of emotion, we understand meta-emotion as a process that monitors and appraises emotions, recruits affective responses toward them, which results in a motivation to maintain and approach emotions, or to control and avoid them. This meta-emotion process plays an important role in media users' selection or rejection of specific media offerings and their invitation to experience emotion. We discuss how this framework may integrate previously unrelated findings on the role of emotions in guiding selective media use and conclude with directions for further research. Roosevelt's famous words on the fear of fear point to humans' ability to have emotions about emotions much like they can have thoughts about thoughts. Drawing on an analogy with meta-cognition, authors like Gaschke (1988), Oliver (1993) and Gottman, Katz, and Hooven (1997) have coined the term meta-emotion to refer to this phenomenon. Since then, researchers actively have examined meta-emotion and related areas (meta-mood, need for affect, and fear of emotions) across a variety of disciplines, including media psychology, personality research, child development, clinical psychology, attitude research, consumer research, and others.The common thread behind meta-emotion and related concepts is that people experience, evaluate, and deal with emotion in substantially different ways (Gottman et al., 1997;Maio & Esses, 2001;Mayer & Gaschke, 1988;Oliver, 1993). "Some like it hot" (Appel, in press, p. 1) whereas others could well do without the highs and lows of emotion.Some people feel easily "flooded" (Gottman, 1994, p. 21) or overwhelmed by emotions, whereas others are more confident in their ability to regulate emotions and to express them in socially appropriate ways. Besides these inter-individual differences, a given individual's willingness and ability to derive gratification from the experience of emotion may differ depending on the situation. Feeling sad while watching the final scene of Casablanca (USA, 1942) is a rewarding experience to many people, whereas feeling sad about losing love in one's own life is usually not.Such differences in the experience and expression of emotion have led a number of authors to conclude that sadness is not equal to sadness, anger is not equal to anger, and so on. Rather, emotions are accompanied by meta-level mental processes that color the Appraisal of emotions in media use 4 experience of emotions and influence how people express and regulate them. Meta-processes seem able even to modify what is often considered to be the m...

show abstract

Progress in psychosocial assessment and treatment

Feske¹,

Shear²

1999

Depress. Anxiety

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Are emotions frightening? An extension of the fear of fear construct

Cited by 221 publications

References 27 publications

Well-Being and Generalized Anxiety in Japanese Undergraduates: A Prospective Cohort Study

Well-Being and Generalized Anxiety in Japanese Undergraduates: A Prospective Cohort Study

Appraisal of Emotions in Media Use: Toward a Process Model of Meta-Emotion and Emotion Regulation

Progress in psychosocial assessment and treatment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About